


we happy few

by owlinaminor



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, Graduation, Multimedia, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-14 23:24:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11793612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlinaminor/pseuds/owlinaminor
Summary: On the last day of high school for Shiratorizawa Academy’s class of 2017, Tendou Satori gives each of his teammates a book.





	we happy few

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this a couple months ago for the incredible [farewell zine](https://farewellzine.tumblr.com/)!! and [AJ](http://thehauntedboy.tumblr.com/) did _the most gorgeous_ art to go with it (seriously, i am still swooning over here), which i have embedded into the fic. (you can see/reblog that art individually [here](http://thehauntedboy.tumblr.com/post/164072027011)).
> 
> title is from the [st crispin's day speech](http://shakespeare.mit.edu/henryv/henryv.4.3.html) in shakespeare's henry v.

On the last day of high school for Shiratorizawa Academy’s class of 2017, Tendou Satori gives each of his teammates a book.  It’s about the size of a small paperback, with slim binding and a glossy purple cover.  Flipping through the book reveals a series of photos.

The first photo is set in the Shiratorizawa cafeteria, a landscape of clean whitewashed walls and bright orange tables.  The center of the photo is Yamagata, bent over a massive plate of fried rice, grinning like a cartoon villain about to launch into a revenge narrative.  He is surrounded by the rest of his team, all of them cheering him on - except Ushijima, who is staring directly at the camera.  The caption: **the champion**.

_“There’s no way he can do it,” Semi says._

_“Not with that attitude!” Goshiki exclaims.  He inches in closer to Yamagata, breath tickling his senpai’s ear as he shouts, “I THINK YOU CAN DO IT.  I THINK YOU ARE THE BEST EATER IN ALL OF MIYAGI.  I THINK YOU COULD EVEN EAT USHIJIMA-SENPAI IF YOU PUT YOUR MIND TO IT.”_

_Tendou lets out a cackle as he focuses his camera.  “I think you just got owned, Eita.”_

_Semi turns to glare at the cameraman.  “Why are you photographing this, anyway?”_

_“Because,” Tendou says.  “When Wakatoshi is super famous and people interview me asking what he was like in high school, I want to have lots of evidence to give them.”_

_“Wakatoshi isn’t even in the frame,” Semi counters._

_Ushijima takes a couple of steps closer to Yamagata and bends down so that he is clearly visible, facing the camera as though it’s the captain of a team Shiratorizawa is about to annihilate.  He throws up a peace sign just as Tendou takes the picture._

_“I like this idea,” he says mildly._

_Yamagata sucks in a deep breath, picks up his chopsticks, and begins his advance._

_Goshiki’s eyes widen as he whispers, the way one might when visiting a temple: “I bet I could eat twice that.”_

__

The second photo shows Ushijima, Shirabu, and Goshiki lying on their backs on Ushijima’s bed in his dorm.  All three of their faces are covered in white plastic masks, and all six of their eyes are shaded by cucumbers.  Shirabu is scowling, Goshiki is grinning, and Ushijima appears to be taking a nap.  The caption: **refreshingly silky-smooth hairless beautiful skin**.

_“None of you need this, you know,” Oohira says.  He’s sitting on Tendou’s bed, ostensibly doing some reading for literature class.  “You all have perfectly nice skin already.”_

_“But we don’t have_ refreshingly silky-smooth hairless beautiful skin,” _Ushijima replies matter-of-factly.  He adjusts one of his cucumbers so that it more fully covers his right eye.  Goshiki tries to do the same and ends up poking himself._

_“Goshiki, you’re doing it wrong,” Shirabu says._

_Goshiki turns to gape at the setter, and immediately loses both of his cucumbers to the surrounding bedspread.  “How do you know!  You can’t even see me!”_

_“I just know,” Shirabu sniffs._

_“You’ll be fine, Goshiki,” Oohira tells him.  “Just follow Ushijima’s lead.  Take a nap.”_

_“And LET ME TAKE THIS PHOTO!” Tendou adds, bursting into the room with his camera (recently returned from a plant-documenting excursion with Kawanishi) held aloft._

_“Oh, God,” Shirabu mutters as the shutter goes off.  “I hope none of next year’s recruits see this.”_

_“What was that, Shirabu?” Ushijima asks._

_Shirabu’s face suddenly goes very pink under his mask.  “I said… I hope my skin is really smooth thanks to this!”_

__

The third photo depicts Semi Eita in profile, lying face-down on the gym floor.  Their shirt is a bright pink button-down with lime green polka-dots, their pants magenta leopard-print leggings, and their shoes a pair of orange converse three sizes too big.  The caption: **fallen warrior**.

_“Tendou, put that camera down!”_

_Tendou grins, brandishing the instrument in question above his head the way a samurai in an old movie might brandish his sword, and starts sprinting up the stairs of the bleachers.  Semi tries to follow, but four steps in, a deceitful shoelace sends them sprawling on their stomach._

_They muster the strength to lift their head just in time to be blinded by a flash – Tendou, at the top of the stairs, shooting the final blow with maximum exposure._

_Semi drops their head back to the floor and groans into the hardened plastic._

_“The punishment was that Goshiki would pick out my outfits for a week,_ not _that it would be_ documented for the entire world.”

_“Aw, cheer up, Eita,” Tendou snickers.  “I think you look great.  That pink really brings out your eyes.”_

__

Next is a picture of the Shiratorizawa volleyball gym at night, all shadows and silhouettes like a scene out of a horror movie.  At first glance, no people are visible in the shot, but upon closer evaluation, it is possible to make out a tall figure in the back left corner, arm raised in a serve.  The caption: **Nationals**.

_“What are you doing here?”_

_Tendou tries to turn towards the voice from where he’s sprawled out on his back on the gymnasium floor, but he only ends up banging his head against the wood.  Ushijima takes a few steps around so that his friend can see him more easily._

_“Wakatoshi!”  Tendou smiles up at him.  “You scared me.”_

_“Sorry,” Ushijima says.  He looks at his friend for a moment, dark eyes unreadable in the dim evening light, then sits down beside him._

_“Tomorrow’s the first day of Nationals,” Tendou says, staring up at the ceiling.  “Right now, teams are arriving in Tokyo, settling into their hotel rooms.  Talking nonstop about how excited they are to face the best players in Japan.”_

_For a long moment, the gym is quiet, save for the distant sounds of cicadas chirping._

_“We should be there,” Tendou says.  Neither cicada nor ghost speaks up to correct him._

_Tendou takes a deep breath, swipes a hand over his eyes, then turns to his captain._

_“What are you doing here?” he asks._

_Ushijima stands back up, offers his friend a hand.  “Practicing serves.”_

__

In a later photo, Oohira, Yamagata, and Semi are sprawled on a faded maroon couch in their floor’s common room.  Oohira sits on one side, a notebook and pen in his hand; Yamagata leans back on the other side; and Semi lies on their back on top of their friends’ laps.  The caption: **strategizing.**

_“We need to tell them not to go to that ramen place the night before a tournament,” Oohira says.  “Remember when we all got indigestion?”_

_“It was worth it, though,” Yamagata replies, rubbing his stomach thoughtfully.  “Speaking of, do you know what the cafeteria has for dinner tonight?”_

_“Something with rice, probably,” Semi says.  (Oohira rolls his eyes at that.)  “Oh, wait, that reminds me of another thing for the list - no dancing on the cafeteria tables.”_

_“What are you doing?” asks a new voice - Ushijima, looming in the doorway, a biology textbook in hand._

_“Writing down advice for the team, after we leave,” Yamagata explains._

_Ushijima cocks his head, examines the tableau of his soon-to-be-former teammates.  “Why?”_

_“So that they can learn from our mistakes,” Semi says.  “So that it’ll be like we never left.”_

_“But… why?”_

_Semi looks at Yamagata.  Yamagata looks at Semi.  Both of them look at Oohira.  And Oohira looks at his captain - finds something impossibly steady and impossibly transient in Ushijima’s dark eyes._

_“He’s right,” Oohira finally concludes.  “They don’t need to learn from our mistakes.  They need to make their own.”_

_And before anyone can protest, he rips up the list._

__

The last photo shows all of the former players of Shiratorizawa’s graduating class, standing in a row on the balcony overlooking the gym, all intently watching some out-of-frame action on the court.  Tendou is pointing and shouting, Semi is leaning over the railing with a scowl on their face, Yamagata is apparently trying to launch himself into the game, Oohira is giving someone a thumbs up.  Ushijima - the last in line, at the very edge of the frame - is simply watching, a small, proud smile on his face.

_“Come on, Goshiki!”_

_“Jump higher, Kawanishi!”_

_“Destroy them, Shirabu!”_

_“It’s one hundred serves each if you all don’t BEAT THESE NERDS.”_

_“Shiratorizawa!  Shiratorizawa!  Shiratorizawa!”_

The caption: **we’re counting on you**.

**Author's Note:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/owlinaminor) / [tumblr](http://owlinaminor.tumblr.com/)


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